DepartmentUnited States & Canada

Walrus tusk drawing

NameWalrus tusk

Artist Artist not recorded

CultureYup’ik

Datelate 19th-early 20th century

Place madeNunivak Island, ALASKA, United States, North America

Mediumengraved walrus tusk

Dimensions18 ¾ x 3 x 2 ¼ in.

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object numberA.2025.26.1

ProvenancePurchased from Brant Mackley Gallery; Collection of Mark Brightman, Massachusetts (via New Hampshire estate auction)

DescriptionThis unique engraved tusk, from the Yup’ik community of Nunivak Island, features various figures with large, round heads that are in the style of yup’ik ellam iinga (“eyes of awareness”). “This cosmological circle,” Ann Fienup-Riordan writes in Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup’ik Eskimo Oral Tradition (University of Oklahoma Press, 1995), “is a recurring theme, both in social and ritual life as well as in material culture. The use of this decorative motif symbolizes both the vision of spirits and the creation of a point of contact between the world of humans and that of spirits.” Often these circles are the figures’ heads on this incised tusk. In other engraved ivory examples, the circles might appear in lieu of joints where bones meet. Also seen in this tusk is the “x-ray” view found in stylized animal drawings in wooden bowls from Nunivak Island. They appear as if you can see the rib cages, or other internal processes (such as digestion for the whales/fish on this piece). There are numerous “scenes” incised on this tusk, many of them with an element of humor.